Hello all,
Airline pilots what’s your stance on the increased cancer rates for flying aircraft at high altitudes for long periods of time. Is it not something that bothers you?
It’s been on my mind for so long as a factor that deters me from wanting to strive to be an airline pilot.
Is there any way to minimize the health risks that associate themselves with flying for the airlines.
Alex,
There have been a number of studies that state airline pilots (and cabin crews) have a higher risk of certain cancers than the general population. Personally I’m at a lower risk because I only fly interisland and seldom get above FL200 which is one way to lower the potential risk. That said that’s not the reason I do the flying I do and even when I was doing long haul frankly it wasn’t something I really think about.
I ride a motorcycle to work often which puts me at much greater risk of death than the radiation exposure. I also eat way too much fried and salty foods, drink too much Diet Coke and paddle in water that’s populated by tiger sharks. I don’t consider myself bold nor do I have a death wish. I simply believe I’d rather have a life I enjoy than maybe (and that’s a BIG maybe) have a few more years of a life I didn’t. But that’s me.
Adam
Alex,
I don’t worry about this one bit. Perhaps I am naïve, but the increased risks are so minimal that I do not think this is something to worry about.
Chris
Alex,
While that may be true, there is risk in just about every aspect of life. I am reminded of a study I read about firefighters and EMTs being at higher risk for shorter than average lifespans due to disrupted sleep patterns. I also think about all of the medical conditions that people develop without explanation. So, are these things that we all should be aware of? Sure. I guess we have control over which set of risks we choose to expose ourselves to, but in my opinion there are so many things that we can’t control…
Tory
Not a pilot yet but a former cancer epidemiologist here, and I can tell you that a lot of things can be correlated with cancer if you look hard enough (and your stats analysis are wonky enough), including coffee-drinking, carrying an umbrella on a rainy day, cell phone use etc etc.
Except for a few cancers with very clear causal pathways we really just have correlation and not causation. From what I’ve read on this, the already-weak findings have been mixed at best imo. I wouldn’t worry about it one bit because if we’re looking purely at risk heart disease would probably kill you faster than cancer purely attributable to being an airline pilot would.
Thank you all for your insight love the different spins placed on this. This will help a bunch.